Community invited to be part of Sunday’s performance

Brooke Snyder sings as Joy Steffan accompanies on the piano while practicing for The Messiah Sing-In. The Messiah Sing-In will be Sunday evening at 6 p.m. at the Cortez United Methodist Church, 515 N. Park. Music is available to check out for those who want to participate in the singing of The Messiah.

The Messiah has long been traditionally sung and adored by choirs, soloists and audience members. This tremendous piece of religious music was written by George Frederic Handel in 1741 and continues to be one of the most recognizable compositions in the world.

This year, the First United Methodist Church of Cortez located at 515 N. Park, will host a sing-in for the Messiah on Sunday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. The entire community is encouraged to join in this Christmas event.

Generally, a piece of music of this magnitude would be practiced and refined to move even the biggest Christmas grinch. Patricia Faulkner helped gather the performers and directors but decided to take a less than perfected approach in piecing together the program.

“Anyone who has wanted to sing the Messiah or has in the past is welcome to come,” Faulkner said. “We aren’t holding rehearsals. Perfection is not the expectation, participation is.”

The church will have solo performances and the program is expected to last an hour and 15 minutes. The original score of music is comprised of three parts, all of which take at least three hours to sing through. The sections are broken into Christmas, Easter and Redemption. The directors will be taking pieces of music from the Christmas and Easter sections.

They will have six chorale numbers and several soloists. This is the first time the Messiah will be performed in Cortez in this format.

“It will be enjoyable no matter what,” said Faulkner. “It’s a marvelous part of Christmas.”

The directors for the program are Ruth Wilson-Francisco and Gwen Tanner. Brooke Snyder is an accompanyist who will play the organ and will sing a soprano solo. Joy Steffan is an accompanyist and will play the piano.

Any community member wanting to take part in the Messiah Sing-in is asked to come to the First United Methodist Church at 5:30 p.m. to look over the music. This is not a rehearsed performance so Faulkner wants to give any participants a chance to ask questions.

The church will be providing child care for the event and a small reception with refreshments will be provided after.

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